Blessings

You know those people you feel like you know, even though you've never met them...I met one of those people last night. Amy and I have 2 mutual friends who happen to be two of my dearest friends. We hear about each other a lot. We finally met last night and of course immediately "friended" each other on facebook.

So of course I had to look at her info page and while I was reading it I came upon this site...http://angiesmithonline.com/ Go look at it..I'll give you a little blurp about it I found.

"In 2008, Angie Smith and her husband Todd (lead singer of the group Selah) learned through ultrasound that their fourth daughter had conditions making her incompatible with life. Advised to terminate the pregnancy, the Smiths chose instead to carry this child and allow room for a miracle. That miracle came the day they met Audrey Caroline and got the chance to love her for the precious two-and-a-half hours she lived on earth.

Upon receiving the original diagnosis, Angie started a blog (Bring the Rain) to keep family and friends informed of their journey."-BH Publishing Group

Their story is inspiring and heartbreaking. It is just a reminder of how blessed I am. We struggled to get pregnant but it was a short time compared to others. My pregnancy and the delivery of Seth was nothing short of wonderful. I tend to forget the struggle, the crying, and disappointment. I forget staying up at night and wondering if I was ever going to be a mother. I can't imagine being pregnant and carrying and loving a child you know will only be with you a few hours, if at all.

On a lighter note...Since the last entry I wrote Seth just simply loves locking Adam and I out of the house. Not so much locking us out as much as just simply making sure the door is locked. I blame this on Adam since he gets on to me all the time for not locking the door when I'm home. So we now have to make sure to bring a house key outside with us to do laundry or to put something in the car.

Also, this week I've had to buy a swimsuit (dang summer birthday parties!!!). I have literally not bought a swimsuit since 2006. It was a traumatic experience. Truly traumatic.

Adventures with Toddlers: Doorknobs and Laundry

So I needed to do some laundry today. Not my favorite but it had to be done. Now let me give you a little layout. My laundry room is connected to the carport. Meaning I have to walk outside my house to go into the laundry room. When we build this will NOT be the layout but I digress...

So I walked out with my load of laundry, put it in the washing machine, and then tried to go back in the house. Yes, tried...Seth had locked me out. Not only had he locked me out but I soon discovered he wanted to let me back in. He tried very hard to let me back in. However, his motor skills have only allowed him to turn the lock one way and it is not the unlock way.

So I soon realize; a) my phone is also locked in the house, b) I have no extra key to my house, c) my dear husband, who would typically be at home because he works nights, is 45 minutes away getting roofing supplies because we also have 2 leaks, d) my mom who I thought had an extra key is at a workshop that is also 45 minutes away.

Then I think "Who is nearby?" My wonderful friend Jessica lives right over the fence! I stand on my lawn furniture...Yes! She's home! I sprint over, knock once, and in true friend fashion barge in yelling her name in panic. She of course does not have a key either but she rushes right over with me.

We find one unlocked window, that requires a ladder to get to, she climbs in, unlocks the door and let's me in. The day is saved!

Seth was traumatized and for the next 2 hours freaked out if anyone walked out that particular door. He's over it now. The lesson learned? Copies of keys will be made and distributed tomorrow.

Waiting on donuts

I'm baking donuts. Yes, you read that right. One of my new obsessions is sneaking healthy foods (i.e. veggies, whole grains, etc.) from the "Sneaky Chef Cookbook" into my family's meals. Tomorrow's breakfast will be chocolate donuts with spinach, blueberries, whole grain flour, and wheat germ added in them. I'm currently waiting on them to finish baking so I thought I'd try to figure out how to add pictures to my little blog here.

I just completed my second week of teaching summer school to some wonderful students in our Special Education program. I'm primarily teaching social skills to four groups of students. I have been blessed to have two groups of students with autism to participate with me. I have learned more about autism in two weeks of summer school than I could have ever learned in a class or a workshop. They are amazing children.

Part of the social skills lessons has been growing a garden. There is a huge green house at the school and a sparrow decided to build her nest and raise her little family at the very back of the green house. We have watched them grow up and leave the nest. So neat!

                                                 Here they are as semi newly hatched chicks.

Fledglings

Then we headed out to our green house and one of them met us on the way.

Today they had all left the nest.

Well, the donuts are done.

Inspiration and potty training

So my friend Gena now has a blog and I was inspired to update mine.

We have started potty training our soon to be two year old. It has been interesting. For the first two weeks we had to work on just sitting on the potty. Seth wouldn't even consider sitting on the potty much less taking off the diaper and wearing pull-ups or underwear. With some positive reinforcement (translation: M&M's) he started sitting on the potty with clothes on.

Today we had a breakthrough thanks to the Shapes app on the iPad. He sat on the potty without a diaper on!! Then he let us put a pull-up on him. All that was possible by letting him play on the iPad during potty time. No actual pottying yet but according to Elmo on "Elmo's Potty Time" everyone eventually learns to use the potty and if Elmo says it, it must be true.

Hello out there!

This is a blog for our family that lives out of town to keep up with us, for my random rants, parenting stories, and posts about our faith.

We are a family of 3 plus our awesome mutt. I've been married to my hubby for 4 (almost 5) years. We were given the blessing and privilege of being parents a year and half ago to our sweet son.

I am a school social worker and my husband is a police officer. We are Roman Catholic.

I'm constantly looking into saving money and feeding my family as healthy as possible. We eat as much organic or home grown as we can (shhh I'm not sure my hubby realizes this!)